Keeper for mine-cars.



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narra es s ream, or PITTSBURGH, PENNSYLVANIA.

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Application filed 5111 171917. Seria1No.180,973.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, MAri-iras SMoLrK, a citizen of the United States,and residing in the city ofPittsburghyin the county of Allegheny andState of Pennsylvania, have invented or discovered new and useful Improvements in Clothes-Line Stretchers, of which the following isaspecification.

My invention consists in certain new and useful improvements in clothesline stretch;

ers, and relates to the general type of de vices for that purpose, formof which is shown i11- Letters Patent of the "United States No.1,223,908, granted to me on April 24th, 1917. p i V a In my presentinvention I have provided an improved and cheapened form of stretcherwhich includes means whereby,

when the intermediate part of the clothes 3 line is raised, as :by meansof a clothes pole or prop, the line is not disengaged from thestretcher, as is the .case with stretchers of this type now on themarket, but the clamp ingeffect on the line is maintained. unimpaired. Ialso provide new and improved means for preventing the accidentaldlsengagement of the loose end ofr-the line from the lower end of theclamping lever.

()ther novel and useful features of construction and arrangement ofparts will appear from thef-ollowing description.

In the accompanyingdrawings, Figure l is a side elevation showing aclothesl-ine secured by my improved stretcher and, the intermediateportion of the line elevated by a clothes line prop; Fig. 2 is a frontelevation of the stretcher; Fig. 3 is a bottom plan view of the same,while Fig. 4c is a bottom plan View showing a modification, the lowerend of the lever beng swung away from the base plate for the sake ofclearness.

The following is a detailed description of the drawings.

A is a base plate, which may be stamped or a casting, and which may beattached to a vertical surface or support, as the post B, by means ofscrews 1. The upper portion of said plate is bifurcated, as at 2, andadjacent to their bases the bifurcations 2 are provided withhorizontally alined, outwardly extend-- ing bosses 3-which are piercedby alined pivot pin holes 4.

C is the clamping lever thickened intermediate of its ends and providedwith a transverse pin hole 5, and 6 is a headed pin inserted through thepin holes 4 and 5 and riveted atits other end to. pivotally mount thelever C upon the plate A. The lower end of the lever is shorter,preferably, than its upper end, and is provided with an integral crossbar 7 whose ends, when the low r end of said lever is swung in towardthe plate A, fit between. the-outwardly extend-- ing flanges 8 formedintegral with the plate A, thus preventing the lateral escape of the endofthe clothes line from beneath the cross bar 7. In Fig. i I have shownthese flanges made integral with the ends of the cross bar 7, instead ofthe plate A, and extending inwardly, so as to inclose the plate Abetween them when the lower end of the lever is swung inwardly, thusserving the same purpose of preventing the escape of the end of theline.

The upper end of the lever C, which is preferably the longer end to giveincreased leverage, is forked to form a pair of fingers 9 and 10. Thefinger 9 extends upwardly and is slightly curved inwardly to act as aguide to the entering clothes line, while the other finger 10, is curvedinwardly and downwardly to form a pocket in which the clothes line isengaged when the stretcher is in use.

In practice, theclothes line is inserted down between the fingers 9 and10 and seats within the curved finger 10 and the end of the line ispulled downwardly until the desired degree of tautness is imparted tothe intermediate portion of the clothes line., The loose end is theninserted under the cross bar 7 and the strain hitherto exerted on theend of the clothes line released. The strain or tautness of theintermediate portion of the clothes line will, by the pull exerted onthe upper end of the lever C force the lower end of said lever inwardly,thus clamping the end of the clothes line in such a manner that it willsupport the intermediate portion of the same without permitting thelatter to loosen or slacken.

Were but a simple fork or yoke provided at the upper end of the lever C,the use of a clothes pole or prop D, to raise the intermediate portionof the clothes line, marked E, would lift the line out of engagementwith said yoke or fork of the lever, or so lessen the strain, that thelower end of the lever could not longer maintain a tight grip on the endof the line, and thus the clothes line and its burden of washing wouldbe precipitated to the ground. However, the

A. w. SPAHT & R, JACOBS.

KEEPE R EOB MINE CARS. APPLICATION vFILED AUG-Q, I917.

Z'SHEETS-SHEET 2- ww w w WITNESSES loaded car,

county of Franklin and where caging rarns rarnr enric ALBERT WILLIAMSPAHT AND GEORGE R. JACOBS, OF CHRISTOPHER, ILLINOIS.

.KEEPER FOR MINE-CARS.

To all whom it may gemcern:

e it known that we, ALBERT W. SPAHT and Gnoncn R. J ACOBS, citizens ofthe United States, and residents of Christopher, in the State ofIllinois, have invented new and Improved-Keepers for.

full, clear, and exact description.

Our. invention relates to keepers for holding a car on. a hoisting cageor platform, and While capable of use with other hoists or cages theinvention primarily is intended for use in mines, either coal ormineral,- and hoisting with safety and speed are important.

The invention more particularly relates to keepers arranged toautomatically stop and spot the cars on a hoisting cage or platform,self-dumping or otherwise, and to hold the same while being hoisted anddumped and Whilebeing lowered to the bottom of the mine shaft, provisionbeing made to automatically open the keepers when'the cage arrivesat thebottom of the shaft to allow the empty car to leave the cage and a forexample, to take the first carsplace. I r

. The objection to keepers ordinarily employed is that they are likelyto produce wrecks or delays bv reason of the fact. that (1) theynotinfrequently fail to. stop the car when the latter is run on the cage;(2) they often fail to close over a Wheel or between the Wheels; (3)they cannot be relied upon to unfailingly hold the car when the platformtilts for dumping, or l) they fail to hold the empty car when the cageis coming out of the usual dumping horns (not shown); or (5) they failto release the car when the cage lands at the bottom of the mine shaft.

The prime object of our invention is to provide keepers that willovercome the objections referred to and this object is attained bykeepers that will be positively opened when the cage reaches the bottomof the shaft and be tripped in ample time to be in position when anarriving car reaches the proper position on the cage; the keepers are'so arranged as to close Specifica'ti on of Letters Patent.

Mine-Cars, of which the following is a Patented Dec. 4:, 119W.

Application filed AugustS; 1917. Serial No. 185,389.

the line 2 -2, 1;

Fig. 3 IS a similar View on the line 3-3,. 1g. Fig. 4 is a fragmentaryplan view given to show certain trips on the cage to be engag-ed by acar coming into position on the cage.

In the illustrationthe letter A indicates the deck of a mine cage; B,the forward wheels of a car; B, the rear wheels; C, the

car aXles; D, the track rails'on the cage;

and D, the rails the mine 'at the bottom.

of the shaft.

On the cage at the under side of the-deck is a horizontal shaft which,it is to be noted, is formed in separate coaxial sections 10, 11. On theshaftsection 10 is secured a trip arm 12 deflected laterally at its freeend to be engaged with the head 13 of a trio barld slidably supported inthe mine'shaft at a side thereof and adapted to be controlled by 'alever 15 to which one end of a retractile spring 16 is connected, theother end being suitably secured to any fixed support. The lever 15 isfulcrumed at its lower end as at 17 and intermediate its ends, it has aslot and pin connection, as at 18,-with the trip bar 14. The arrangementis such that the throwing of the lever will retract the trip bar whilethe spring 16 tends to restore the bar to the normal position with thehead 13 thereof in the path of movement of the trip arm on the cage. Thenumeral 19 indicates hanger bearings on the"- under side of the cagelIl'WlllCll the shafts" 10,11 turn.

Later-ally swingable keepers 20 tioned on the cage at each side inposition to close before the front wheels B and laterally swingablekeepers 20 are positioned to close behind the rear wheels B. The faces25 ofthe keepers are concave to conform to the car wheels. The frontkeepers 20 are mounted. on horizontal rock shafts 21 and are posi therear keepers on rock shafts 22, the

yieldable longitudinally of their shafts 21 by reason of springs 26coiled about said shaft, the springs serving to take the impact of a carwheel.

To operate the keepers from the shafts 10,

11, said keepers are formed below their shafts with rigid arms 27extending to the underside of the deck of the cage, and the outer endsof pitmen or connecting rods 29 are connected to said arms 27, saidconnecting rods being arranged in pairs, there being a pair for eachshaft section 10, 11, extending in opposite directions therefrom, theinner ends of the connecting rods of each pair being connected as at 30to the opposite arms of cross heads 31 secured to the respective shaftsections 10, 11. The turning of the shaft sections thus serves to swingthe keepers to the release or open position. The closing of the keepersis effected by retractile springs 32 disposed at each side of the shaftsections 10, 11, the springs being secured at their outer ends to anyfixed sup ports such as brackets 33 on the underside of the cage deckand secured at their inner ends to cross heads 34- on the respectivesections, whereby the springs Will be put under ten sion by the movementof the shaft sections to open the keepers and will react to close thekeepers. At the adjacent ends of the shaft sections 10, 11, they areformed respectively with clutch elements 35, 36. in operationtherefore,as the cage descends the trip arm 12 thereof will contact with the endorhead 13 of the trip bar 14% which will cause the shaft 10 to be rockedas indicated by the dotted line position ofthe trip 12 in Fig. 2,whereby through the action of the forward cross head 31 and forwardconnecting rods 29, the front keepers 20 will be swnng outwardly asindicated in dotted lines, Fig. 2, to the release position and out ofthe paths of the car Wheels. The turning of the shaft 10 for swingingthe keepers 20 to the release position will have turned the shaftsection 11 through the contact of the clutch members 35 with the clutchmembers 36, thereby swinging the rear keepers 20 to the releasedposition through the action of the rear cross head 31 and rearconnecting rods 29. The cage will have now settled in its position atthe bottom of theshaft and since the trip arm 12 is still bearing on thetrip rod let, the .haft sections are held in the release position of thekeepers against tension of the front bar 14. from beneath the trip arm12, thus permitting the front springs 32 to react and turn the shaftsection 10 to close the front keepers 20. The position of the trip lever15 is such that the bar 14: will not be withdrawn from beneath the triparm 12' until the rear axle of the departing car passed beyond the frontkeepers 20. The rear shaft section 11 is in the meantime held by themeans next described from being turned by the reaction of the rearsprings 32 for closing the rear keepers 20, whereby said keepers aremaintained open after the front keepers close. v I

On the shaft section 1]. is a fixed segment 3? which in the closedposition of the keepers 20 is arrested by a fixed. stop 38 on the cage.The said segment is adapted to be engaged by a latch arm 39 on one endof a rock shaft l0 turning in bearings 41 on the under side of the deck.The rocking of the shaft in one direction to release the segment 3? iscontrolled by trips 42, t?! on the cage above the deck at each side inthe paths of the Wheels of an arriving car. Said trips 42, 42 aresecured to short upright shafts 43 which turn in bearings H and extendto the under side of the deck Where said shafts are formed With crankarms 45, 15*, the terminals 46, d6 of Which. are connected 'with links47, el-T 'at one end of said links,

the opposite ends of said links being con nected respectively with thelatch arm 39 and .vith a similar depending arm 48 on the op posite endof the latch shaft 1-0. To the arm 18 also is connected one end of aretractile spring 4!), the opposite end 50 of which spring is fixedlysecured in any suitable man nor to the under side of the deck. With thedescribed latch and trip, it will be seen that as the shaft 11 is turnedthe segment 37 Will be moved away from the top 38 to the full lineposition of Fig. 3', and the spring 49 will swing the latch arm 39 overthe upper edges of said segment, thereby holding the shaft 11 from beingturned by the reaction of the springs and thus the rear keepers- QO Willbe maintained in the release position although the front keepers 20 willbe swung to the closed position as described under the reaction of thefront springs Upon a car arriving on the cage the front Wheels there; ofwill engage the trips 42, -12 and turn said tripe so that the verticalshafts 4-3 thereof'and the crank arms 45, CS will, through the links 47,4-7, rock the latch shaft 40 to release the segment 3?, therebypermitting the rear s rings 82 to react for closing the rear keepers 26behind the rear Wheels of 139 ice a ers To provide for operating theshaft sections 10, 11, manually lever arms 51 are secured thereto.

We Wish to state in conclusion that alin though the illustrated exampleconstitutes a practical embodiment of our invention, we do not limitourselves strictly to the mechanical details herein illustrated, sincemanifestly the same can be considerably vale ried without departure fromthe spirit of the invention as defined in the appended claims.

Having thus described our invention, We claim as new and desireto'secure by Let- ?Jttters Patent:

1. ln. means to lock cars on hoist cages, a front and a rear keepermounted. on the cage for engaging or disengaging the car, said keepersbeing movable to locking or release positions, actuatingmeans for thefront keeper, trip nibans relatively to Which said cage is movable andcontrolling said actuating means, whereby to move said front keeper torelease position, means to restore so the front keeper to the lockingposition for arresting an arriving car, actuating means for the rearkeeper and operable to move the said rear keeper to the release positionwith the release movement of the first l5 keeper, and trip meanscontrolling said second actuating means to restore the rear keeper tothe locking position, said second trip means being positioned on thecage in the path of movement of an arriving car to be in actuated by thelatter.

2. In a means to lock cars on mine cages, of the type depending ontripping means acting at the level at which the car is taken on anddischarged; a laterally swingable front keeper and a laterallysivingable rear keeper positioned on the cage respectively to engage ordisengage a front Wheel and a rear Wheel of the car, means subject tothe said tripping means for swinging both the said front and rearkeepers to the release positions, means to restore the front keeper tothe locking position independently of the second keeper, and means onthe cage open able by an arriving car to restore the rear kce )er to thelockino- Josition.

In. a means to lock cars on mine cages, of the type depending ontripping means acting at the level at which the car is taken on anddischarged; a front keeper and or '0 rear keeper mounted on the cage formove ment to locking and release positions respectively to engage ordisengage a front Wheel and a rear wheel of the cur, means subject tothe said tripping means for movinp; both .65 the said front and rearkeepers to the release positions, means to restore the front keeper tothe locking position independently of the second keeper, and means onthe cage operable by an arriving car to restore the rear keeper to thelocking position.

4. In a means toiock cars on mine cages, of the type depending on tripmeans rela tively to which the cage is movable; a front keeper and arear keeper mounted on the cage to engage a car respectively in frontand in the rear thereof, means subject to said tripping means to movethe keepers to their release positions to permit a car to move from thecage, means to restore the front keeper to thelocking" position fornrresting on arriving car, means to retard the movement of the rearkeeper after the said restoring movementof the front keeper, and meanssubject to an arriving car to re store the rear keeper to the lockingposilllOll.

5. The combination with a mine cage or the like, of front and rearshafts, keepers movable by the turning of said shafts to release orlocking position, means to rock said shafts in unison to move thekeepers to the release position, means acting on the front shaft torestore the front keeper to the locking position independently of therear keeper, and means controllable an arriving car to actuate the rearshaft for restoring the rear keeper to the locking position.

6. The combination with a mine cage or the like, of alined front andrear shaft sec tions, front and rear keepers operable respectively bythe said shaft sections, trip means to turn the front shaft section formoving the front keeper to release position, said shaft sections havingclutch. elements whereby to turn the rear section by the releasemovement of the front section, springs acting respectively on the saidshaft sections and tending to so turn the same to restore the keepers tothe locking positions, latch means t hold the rear shaft section andrear keeper against movement to the locking position With the restoringof the-front keeper, and trip means operable by an arriving car tounlatch said latch means.

7. In means to lock cars on mine cage or the like, sepa "ate front andrear keepers on the cage and located to engage a car in front and in therear thereof, trip means to cause both keepers to be movedto releasepositions at the level at which cars are received upon and depart fromthe cage, means 0011- trolled by adeparting car to restore the frontkeeper to the locking position, and means subject to an arriving car torestore the rear keeper to the locking position be hind said lastmentioned car.

8. In means to lock cars on a, mine cage or the like, separate alinedfront and rear shaft sections on the cage, front and rear keepersadapted to be actuated by said shaft sections and located on the cage toengage a car in front and in the rear thereof, separate spring meansacting on said shaft sections and tending to turn the me to restore thekeepers to. the locking positions, trip means adapted to actuate thefront shaft section to move the front keeper to the release position,means toclient the release movement of the rear shaft section by therelease movement of the front shaft sec maaesl tion, means controlled bya departing car to withdraw the trip means and permit the spring meansof the front shaft section to react, latch means for the rear shaftsection, and trip means for said latch means, said. last naei'itionedtrip means being operable by an arrivil'ig car.

ALBERT WILLIAM SPAHT GEORGE E. JACOBS. Witnesses Jimrns Coonnnar,CLARENCE M. DURHAM.

